The Marshall Project

And we've told stories on this show about the people swept up in this shadow surge, like the parents reportedly being arrested by ICE agents at bus stops, the violence and the cruelty growing just without all the fanfare.

So how is this all happening? Our friends at the Marshall Project zoomed in on all of the states and found that more and more local law enforcement agencies in Republican-led states are agreeing to help the Trump administration with its immigration crackdown.

Thousands of highway patrols and sheriff's departments and local police agencies across the country are cooperating with ICE.

According to the Marshall Project, since June alone, ICE has shattered monthly records for signing up local law enforcement partners.

These things are called 287Gs, and it's leading to arrest spikes in certain states.

Take Florida.

Look at Ohio.

Two years ago in Ohio, it didn't have a single local police agency enforcing laws for ICE.

Our guest is an Arizona native whose career has taken him from journalism and filmmaking in New York to investigations involving military justice, policing, prisons, conversion therapy, homelessness, and gender-affirming care.

His reporting has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Marshall Project, Vice, and Rolling Stone, and his investigations have helped spark legislation, protests, resignations, and real-world change.

Today, he's the founder and editor-in-chief of Lookout, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to accountability journalism focused on the LGBTQ plus communities, and he believes the most punk thing you can do right now is read.

Please welcome to the rainbow-tinted microphone, Joseph Darius Jafari from Lookout News.

So I'll give the abridged version, but essentially I've spent the past before.

Look, I spent 12 years in investigative journalism, really looking at military criminal justice issues, as well as civilian criminal justice issues.

I worked the Marshall project.

I work at spotlight and I was really focused on looking at police and prison.

His book is titled The Black Shield, An American Memoir of Family and Power.

Wilbert Cooper is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.

Welcome to all of it.

Thank you so much for having me.

As a journalist, how did growing up in that world help you understand how you should report about the criminal justice system?

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

As a journalist, you know, I come from Vice Media originally before I started the Marshall Project.

And there was always this sense of reporting on things and bringing yourself into the story and figuring out how to tease out the important parts of yourself that could speak uniquely to the story.

So yeah, this is actually a systemic gap.

There's a project called the Marshall Project reported in 2025 that Mississippi acknowledged its local j- jail death data is largely absent from federal reporting requirements.

So what we know about who dies in Mississippi jails and why is actually far less complete than what we should actually know.

I mean, you guys, that is a-- comment below.

So you're, she was overwhelmed is not only an individual explanation, it may be also an organizational confession.

So my question to you is, what do you think is the answer?

Well, if I was their consultant, [laughs] I would probably, you know, look at the separate report from that Marshall Project, right? That identified at the same facility, Jones County Jail, same region, a licensed practical nurse was providing care without the superva- va- supervision required by the license.

So now we're looking at multiple Mississippi county jails operating with minimal medical staffing, and the oversight of those medical staff members through licensing board is largely reactive.

The holding of a mother and two children in the Dilley, Texas immigrate- immigrant detention center for 58 days has caused a federal judge to appoint independent observers to represent those in the facility.

Lauren Villagran with the nonprofit Marshall Project discussed the case on The Texas Standard.

Families may have been released on bond or they may have been, you know, sort of returned summarily rather than being detained for this extensive period, and that fight has moved to the courts.

Uh, US District Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the settlement, has appointed an independent monitor to review the lengths of stay and the conditions in family detention.

Under terms of this agreement, minors cannot be detained for more than 20 days before release or transfer, and the government must release minors without unnecessary delay to parents, relatives, or licensed sponsors.

But according to new reporting by the Marshall Project, significant numbers of minors are being held much longer than 20 days.

And these lengthy stays may be having another consequence.

Parents confronted with a choice, continue the legal fight and keep the children in detention.

or abandon the fight and get them out.

Now a federal judge is stepping in.

Joining us is Lauren Villagran, who's been reporting this story for the Marshall Project.

Lauren, welcome to the Texas Standard.